Red pen tyranny blighted my days at school

Teachers have been told that to use a red pen in their negative comments of pupils’ work is too aggressive. I know — I lost five years of learning due to the tyranny of the red pen. I started school in 1953 at five-and-ahalf. I was taught to read and write in Marion richardson handwriting, simple arithmetic and most of my times tables. In those days, dyslexia had not been recognised; if you couldn’t spell, it was because you were stupid. at seven-and-a-half I was moved to a new school. Then began the tyranny of the red pen. any piece of writing I submitted would come back covered in illegible red squiggles. I took it to be a punishment for being unable to spell, so gradually I worsened human interaction, not replace it. Improvements in efficiency and profitability are likely only if Ai is used to enhance human-to-human interaction.

Passing the Turing Test is great, but not if it fails to enhance relationships between real people.

STEPHEN PARKER, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs.

Men are victims, too

The subject of husbands being abused by their wives is a very sensitive one (Femail).

Men fear the ridicule they may receive if they admit their wives are violent towards them. I was brought up in a very violent household where my mother frequently lashed out at my father. she injured him so badly on many occasions that he was admitted to hospital.

Our house was trashed several times because of her actions, sometimes due to alcohol, but my handwriting, thinking that if my teacher couldn’t read it, she could not penalise my spelling. It didn’t work: she announced to the whole class that mine was ‘the worst handwriting she had ever seen’. at no time was spelling ever taught. The next strategy I used was to stop writing as soon as I came to a word that I couldn’t spell. I was told that if this happened I should use another word instead which I could spell. I brought a dictionary to school, but was told not to use it and to take it home. When I was about ten I was ill for four weeks, during which time they must have taught long division. My elder brother jeered at me for not being able to do it and waited until I was almost often just because she was in a foul temper.

I remember, as a child, hearing the blows when she hit him, or the crash when she threw something; not daring to come into the room afraid of what we might find had a dreadful impact on me. I recall running out of the house to a phone box to call the police, as the noise was fearful.

The police attended, but of course could do nothing, as it was deemed to be a domestic situation. They did warn my parents t hat i t was unacceptable to have a child running out for help. For that, I was severely punished.

It trivialises this distressing subject to illustrate it with a young man with sticky plasters on his face. We regularly see images of victims of violence with all the resultant wounds.

This is often a ‘hidden’ crime and its effects shouldn’t be underestimated.

NORMA WILLOUGHBY, Halifax. finished primary school before showing me. I ended up in the remedial classes at secondary, surrounded by morons and thugs. The ‘best’ teachers taught only the top pupils, leaving the mediocre and downright poor teachers to teach the lower grades. I was allowed to stay on for a fifth year because I was skilled at woodwork and technical drawing, and in science my understanding of biology and chemistry had been a1. My aim was to be a woodwork teacher, so I spent ten years as a joiner attending four years day-release at a technical college before eventually teaching cabinet-making at the London college of Furniture (now part of London Met).

DAVE STARLING, London.

Message of hope

I T was encouraging and rewarding to read the essay by rev David robertson (Mail) when he writes on the state of the nation’s christian belief.

rev robertson also chall enges those who profess christianity, as well as those who do not, to reflect on scotland’s christian heritage in the life of the nation today.

REV S. MATTHEWS, Stornoway,